How Soon Will Electric Cars Replace Petrol And Diesel Vehicles?

15th Sep, 2017

Making headlines at the moment is the recent announcement that the UK government will ban petrol and diesel cars on the roads by 2040, which understandably has some of the public (and indeed the industry) concerned. So if people with petrol vehicles will be forced to scrap their cars, what’ll rise to fill the gap? Electric vehicles look like the most likely candidate, a theory which seems to be supported going on the statements from many of the industry professionals at last week’s Frankfurt Motor Show. Don’t worry too much for your beloved motor yet though – it’s very unlikely to be a sudden transition!

Industry Giants To Build More Electric Cars

From Volkswagen to Volvo, Jaguar to BMW, many major manufacturers last week were repeating their commitment to electric cars. Volkwagen recently said they’ll build electrified versions of every model in their range, while BMW said that they’ll produce 12 purely-electric vehicles by 2025. Officials from Honda, Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover have all said similar things, too. At first glance, it looks like the entire industry is leaning toward electric cars – but if we hold our horses for a second, there’s actually a bit more context to these announcements.

While BMW said ‘purely electric’, you’ll notice that Volkswagen definitely didn’t. They said ‘electrified’. This means that the cars they produce don’t have to run only on electric power, but can in fact be hybrids: basically, cars that use petrol engines supported by a smaller electric one. Instead of manufacturing fully-electric cars, manufacturers like Volkswagen can technically produce these hybrids and still be meeting their commitments. So while cars will be using electric technology more and more often in their construction, whole nations of fully-fledged electric cars are still some way off yet.

How Quickly Will The Petrol And Diesel Ban Affect You?

As lots of industry experts have pointed out, the ban on petrol and diesel cars sounds very sweeping and dramatic, but it doesn’t cover hybrids, which would remain perfectly legal. Remember, we’re talking over two decades into the future here, too; the ban doesn’t come into effect by 2040. By that date, there might not be any non-hybrids left on the roads anyway.

So why are car makers in such a hurry to make new announcements about electric cars? Well, there are a couple of likely reasons:

The cost of lithium-ion batteries has fallen, while battery-management tech has improved

Anti-pollution legislation is being tightened in multiple countries

New carbon-dioxide limits are due to come into force from 2021

However, there are three equally valid reasons why you won’t necessarily have to scrap your car to make way for electric versions anytime soon:

We still need even more efficient batteries to make global uptake on electric vehicles a viable course of action

There needs to be a solid and dedicated charging infrastructure to support them – in other words, no one fighting over charging points

We need to be able to guarantee we’ve got enough power to cope with the demand. Think about – after 5:30pm every day, we’re likely to see a major upswing in people putting their cars onto charge!

So while it does seem there are some positive steps being made towards making fully-fledged electric cars viable for us all, it’s still going to be quite a number of years before we see the effect. Your beloved hatchback is safe for now! In the meantime, here at Scrap Car Network you can still count on us to provide a top-tier car scrapping service, whether your car runs on petrol, electricity, or hopes and dreams.